CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 11, 2011 KPMG KPMG has appointed Paul Sawdon as UK head of its internal audit practice. Sawdon has been a partner at KPMG for the past ten years, where he has worked on a variety of audit projects, including developing the firm’s extended assurance proposition. He takes over from David Defroand, who leaves to devote himself to [...]
Exchanging a career for entrepreneurial success December 11, 2011 DID anyone try to discourage you from starting the business? I ask Rupert Lee-Browne, the founder and chief executive of foreign exchange company Caxton FX. “No,” he says resolutely. “Well, they probably did, but I wouldn’t have listened,” he laughs. Lee-Browne, who describes himself as a “rubbish worker,” always had “an itch” to start something [...]
ENTREPRENEURS NEWS | IN BRIEF December 11, 2011 THE EAST END GETS AN UPGRADE San Francisco based start-up Eventbrite is coming to the east end of London – the online ticket-seller’s first international office. Eventbrite also serves as a platform on which organisers can plan events and promote them using social media. Co-founder of the company Renaud Visage says: “London will be our [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 7, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES DUBLIN IS URGED TO SELL NAMA AS A SINGLE ENTITY A secret report into the operations of Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency, the state agency set up to purge Irish banks of their toxic property loans, has recommended that the government should consider selling it off as a single entity. FINANCING PROBLEMS WEIGH [...]
Blacks tanks as it seeks an Xmas buyer December 7, 2011 STRUGGLING outdoor equipment retailer Blacks Leisure yesterday put itself up for sale, sending its shares plummeting as it admitted it had failed to find an alternative route out of it funding troubles. Shares in Blacks, which have lost 90 per cent of their value since the start of the year, extended losses to close at [...]
Ross bails Cosalt out – until his offer ends December 7, 2011 DAVID Ross, chairman of safety gear supplier Cosalt, rode to the loss-making company’s rescue yesterday with a deal to provide it with £5m of emergency working capital to keep it afloat. Ross, whose grandfather founded Cosalt a century ago, has made the funds available from his Oval investment vehicle but warned that he would only [...]
Bilfinger to list fund in London December 7, 2011 Construction services group Bilfinger Berger plans to list an infrastructure fund in London later this month, raising £212m to invest in a portfolio of assets ranging from roads to prisons. The Luxembourg-incorporated Bilfinger Berger Global Infrastructure (BBGI) is offering 212m shares at a fixed price of £1 each, it said in a statement yesterday, and [...]
Don’t underestimate the blends December 7, 2011 SOMETIMES seen as the poor relation to single malt, interest in blended whisky has been re-ignited by the trend for classic whisky cocktails and some innovative international serving methods. Blended whisky accounts for 92 per cent of global whisky consumption. New territories like the Far East are discovering its promise, especially as part of a [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 6, 2011 Callatay & Wouters Callatay & Wouters, which provides IT solutions to retail, private and direct banks, has appointed Diederik Van Der Linden to the new position of sales and marketing director. Van Der Linden, who specialises in retail and private banking, joined the company in 2001 to lead the international business development team, before becoming [...]
Downgrade bombshell puts brakes on FTSE gains December 6, 2011 The brakes were slammed on the recovery in European markets this morning after ratings agency Standard and Poor’s warned 15 Eurozone countries – including Germany – that they were teetering on the edge of a downgrade. Asian stocks and the euro fell after S&P piled pressure on a plan to solve the region’s debt crisis [...]